Chapter 922 - 921: Don’t Jinx It

Medical Center.

"I'll take Liz for more detailed tests right away…" George said urgently.

"No!" Adam cut him off, giving him a look. "Page Melendez and have him take Liz for the tests!"

"What?" George blinked, caught off guard.

"You're Liz's best friend," Adam pointed out. "Friendship clouds your judgment. You'll just cherry-pick conclusions, and that's anything but objective."

Seeing George open his mouth to argue, Adam shut him down. "Don't bother explaining. You just said Liz was fine—either that's bias, or it's incompetence. Either way, do you really want your best friend Liz in the hands of a doctor like that?"

"…" George had no comeback.

"It's okay," Liz said with a forced smile. "George, I don't need you as my doctor. I need you as my friend by my side. The hospital's full of doctors, but you're my only best friend."

"Alright," George said, stepping over to Liz and gripping her hand tightly.

"…" Adam sighed internally, gave George a long look, then turned and left the room to page Melendez himself.

George, that chubby little guy, got way too emotional whenever it came to something personal. As a friend, it showed how genuine he was. But as a doctor? It was a problem—he couldn't keep a clear head.

Adam was half-tempted to write him off again. But after a moment's thought, he let it go. The internship year was almost up anyway—just a few months left. Once it was over, George and the others would become residents. There'd be no official mentorship tying them to Adam anymore. If Melendez, Lexie, or Carter wanted to stick with him, he'd guide them. George, though? He could fly back to Meredith and Christina's orbit—they were his real crew, after all.

"Who's Melendez?" Liz's curious voice drifted from behind. "If Adam's putting him in charge of my case, he must be pretty impressive, right?"

"Oh, he's good," George said with a grin. "Think of him as an upgraded Christina."

"Hey!" Christina snapped, offended. "More like a watered-down version!"

"Only you'd think that," George teased. "Melendez has the nickname 'Little Duncan.' If he's a watered-down you, does that mean you're on par with Adam?"

"Little Duncan?" Liz's curiosity deepened.

"Yup," George said, happy to distract her. "And that's not all—there's a 'Little Grey' too. Liz, you probably don't know this, but Meredith's half-sister, Lexie Grey, started interning here. She's under Adam's wing. Lexie's crazy talented—photographic memory and all. They call her 'Little Grey'…"

"…" Meredith's dazed eyes shot George a glare.

The hospital's "Little Grey" was supposed to be her. But with "Big Duncan" and "Little Duncan" setting the bar, George's mention of "Little Grey" made it easy for people to skip over her and think of her legendary mom instead. At least, that's how it felt to her.

"Wow," Liz said, forcing another smile. "This place is getting livelier by the day—so many geniuses…"

Exactly.

It dragged her back to her old dreams. Back in the day, she'd been the "model doctor," fighting tooth and nail to compete with Christina and the others amid colleagues' sneers and patients' biases. Now, everything had changed. The excitement belonged to everyone else, while she was left with her own quiet misery.

She'd thought her fiancé was her true love, but he kept gallivanting around. She'd come back, facing pitying looks from former colleagues, playing the martyr to win him back. And then, like some cruel twist of fate, her fake illness turned real. And it didn't seem minor either.

The feelings hit her all at once—fresh off her brow, straight to her heart.

"Oh no!" George suddenly snapped out of it. "Adam told me to page Melendez!"

He bolted out of the room.

"I already paged him," Adam said as a panting George caught up to him. "Melendez will handle Liz's case. You're her best friend, and I doubt you'll be able to focus on work right now—I wouldn't trust you to, either. Here's the deal: forget rotations for now. You're in charge of outpatient clinic duties full-time. No ER, no clinical research—just stick to that. Spend your free time with Liz."

"Dr. Duncan…" George's voice rose in a panic.

This was him being sidelined, plain and simple.

"Hold on," Adam said, calming him down. "This is for your sake—and everyone else's. I've got a bad feeling about Liz's condition. You need to brace yourself. Once we get the results, I'm not about to let a distracted you anywhere near the ER or other patients. The outpatient clinic's the best fit."

An intern's screw-up landed on their supervising resident's shoulders. With George like this, Adam wasn't about to let him anywhere near a mess he'd have to clean up! The clinic was just triage—prevention over treatment. If anything serious came up, George wouldn't be handling it anyway.

"Fine," George said, nodding reluctantly.

He was worried about Liz, no question. But now he was starting to worry about himself too. He wasn't dumb—Adam's attitude was crystal clear. First, he wouldn't let George handle Liz's case, and now he was relegating him to clinic duty. It was a vote of no confidence.

Then again, he couldn't blame Adam. When Liz had her meltdown back then, George had almost gotten sucked in—too embarrassed to back off—until Adam chewed him out and pulled him back from the brink of getting canned alongside her. Plus, just now, he'd missed the issue on Liz's MRI and spaced out on Adam's instructions. He could see why Adam didn't trust him.

It was Liz, after all.

When she lost it, no one could rein her in. Letting him manage her case? Even George, deep down, wasn't sure he could handle it. Only someone like Melendez—cool-headed "Little Duncan"—could keep her in check. Still, being stuck in the clinic and cut off from other patients? That stung.

"Ugh, I hope Liz gets better soon," George thought to himself.

With Melendez on the case, things moved fast.

"What?!"

When Adam shared the diagnosis, everyone in the room gasped.

"Liz has stage IV metastatic melanoma," Adam said, scanning the group. "It's spread to her liver and brain. Over the next little while, she'll need three major surgeries and a ton of outpatient follow-ups. That's just for the tumors we've found so far. Oh, and Danny—if you two are thinking about kids down the line, you should book a consult with Dr. Montgomery ASAP. Have her harvest as many healthy eggs as possible for Liz now. Once radiation starts…"

"Absolutely, we'll think about kids!" Liz said, clutching Danny's hand tightly.

"Yeah," Danny said, gazing at her tenderly. "But right now, the priority is getting you through this. Everything else can wait."

"As long as you're with me, I'm not afraid of anything," Liz said, her voice shaky as she gripped his hand. "Back then, we managed to swap out a heart and get you healthy again. This time, we'll make it too. Nothing's going to keep us apart!"

"Exactly!" Danny squeezed her hand back, nodding firmly.

A Few Days Later.

"Huh, who's she?"

Adam was prepping for Liz's temporal lobe tumor resection when he noticed an unfamiliar woman in the room—a nurse aide.

"Danny's got something big going on today," Liz said with a strained smile. "She's the best nurse aide he could find for me."

(End of Chapter)